A Tale of Two Responses

I've been keeping up with the Daily Audio Bible (www.dailyaudiobible.com) which goes through the entire Bible in a year, with selections each day from the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs.  It's a great way to keep myself accountable.

Recently, there were two contrasting stories that struck me.  The first was from the Old Testament and recounts the amazing story of Elijah facing off against the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel.  All day, Baal is unable to respond, yet God comes through immediately with consuming fire from heaven.  That's probably one of my favorite displays of God's power in the entire Bible.  However, what really spoke to me is what comes afterwards:  Jezebel is enraged and goes on a manhunt for Elijah.  Tired, discouraged and defeated, he cries out to God, "I have had enough, LORD...Take my life..." (I Kings 19:4b, NIV).  He says this only a matter of days after witnessing this miraculous assurance that God is able to do anything and everything.

By contrast, the book of Acts appears to be one long narrative of Paul and assorted companions going from city to city, boldly preaching the Gospel.  While they convert many, they appear to antagonize even more, and there are multiple times where the crowds threaten violence and they need to hustle out of the city.  In Lystra, the crowd actually tries to stone them to death.  Acts 14:19b says "They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead."  But what comes next?  Verse 20 says, "But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city.  The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe."  He went right back preaching the Word, which is what incited violence against him in the first place....in the very same city!

Confession:  I'm a lot more like Elijah than Paul.  God will show me amazing things and have doors open for us and the very next day (if not hour), doubts, uncertainties and fears (specified and unspecified) creep in again. Why can't I trust that God did not lead us to Africa only to abandon us?

I want to be more like Paul than Elijah.  Paul was the consummate optimist.  In all his written letters, he never once wavered from his firm convictions that God will work all things together for good, that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, and that if God is for us, who can be against us?  He even put a positive spin on his "thorn in the flesh," reasoning that since God didn't cure it, there must be a good purpose for it in Paul's life.  Finally, he viewed his death as a martyr at yet another opportunity for God to be glorified.  I'm sure he preached out boldly on death row until his very last moment on this earth.

With God's help, I'm going to try be more like Paul than Elijah these last few weeks in the States.